Resiliency Reader - Spring 2014

Parent Category: ROOT Category: Resiliency Reader eNewsletter

Resiliency Reader eNewsletter Masthead

Welcome to issue #2 of the Resiliency Reader eNewsletter brought to you by the Al Siebert Resiliency Center. We hope you will find the information and articles we provide to be useful in your quest to become more resilient. Please join in the conversation either at our online forum, or by submitting your article, review, upcoming event or other resiliency-related resources to us for possible publication.

Table of Contents


Molly's Corner:

The last of human freedoms — the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. ~ Victor Frankl

This quote by Victor Frankl, a neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, continues the message I started in the last newsletter. In 2004, the APA Task Force for Resilience in Response to Terriorism published a fact sheet that states "resilience" is defined as "an interactive product of beliefs, attitudes, approaches, behaviors, and perhaps physiology that help people fare better during adversity and recover more quickly following it." Your brain, the most complex living structure in the known universe, has a capacity to store more information than a supercomputer. Your brain also has the capacity of considering endless choices and new ways to respond in any given set of circumstances.

Al Siebert stated "We are most resilient when we scan new circumstances with curiosity, not knowing in advance what we will do, but confident enough that we will interact in ways that lead to things working well."* It is my belief we are also most resilient when we allow our minds to create or learn better ways to respond. Embrace your capacity of endless choice to connect effectively, master change, thrive under pressure and bounce back from setbacks Our ability to choose how we respond is another gift to the world — and to ourselves.

~ Molly Siebert, Director, Al Siebert Resiliency Center

* Quote from The Resiliency Advantage, page 202 (©2005 Berrett-Koehler)


Why Trust Change: 5 Tips for Safe Passage

As we enter midlife, we may find ourselves faced with any number of highly sobering challenges, personally or professionally. Perhaps it's the first time you've experienced the death of a loved one, a radical job change or a sudden and unexpected shift in circumstance that leaves you re-assessing your values, life direction and what matters most to you. Here are five tips for safe passage through change. (Provided by Michelle Atlas) READ MORE...


Mooney MetaReslience article thumbnail

Meta Resilience and the Experience of Adversity

Transformational Burnout is the guided experience of embracing Burnout to release Resilience. The transformation that takes place is from an old perception of the self which is struggling with coping in the present, to a new realised self which has ample resources to relish the ups and downs of life. This process of change leads to transformational learning which allows one to access enhanced and transcendent leadership capabilities in a personal, group and organisational context. (Contributed by Paul Mooney) READ MORE...


Warrior Resilience and Thriving in Operation Iraqi Freedom:
Combining Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, Resiliency and Positive Psychology (Article Review)

Overview of an article by Thomas A. Jarrett, Maj., US Army. Read how efforts initiated by Major Jarrett, who served twice in Operation Iraqi Freedom where he developed WRT, as well as training he conducted for over 12,500 Warriors as the Prevention Team Leader for the 98th Combat Stress Control Detachment serving Baghdad, have helped our warriors and their families. (Overview provided by Molly Siebert) READ MORE...


ASRC Board Retreat Summary

The board of the Al Siebert Resiliency Center met at the Oregon Coast in March to for a long-term planning session. We created an action plan and fine tuned our mission statement. (Summary provided by Kristin Pintarich) READ MORE...


Research Question of the Quarter:

In the article "Stay Calm Germany" in the Winter 2014 Resiliency Reader, Resilitator Julia Scharnhorst raises the question: Are there aspects of resiliency that work differently for men and women? RESPOND HERE...


Resiliency Quote of the Quarter:

Optimism poem graphic - Tree on Cliff Optimism
More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs — all this resinous, unretractable earth.

~ "Optimism" by Jane Hirshfield
from Given Sugar, Given Salt. © Harper Collins, 2002.


Events & Resources

Worthwhile Reads:


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